Mission 10a
by Mitanika
Summary: Runner Five is sent on a secret run by Janine. And of course, Sam is there to help. I'd put this mission falling somewhere between Missions 10 and 11- although it's not particularly important to the storyline of either of those missions.
1. Chapter 1

Runner Five was cold and hungry. As she made her way across the quad to the makeshift building that passed as a cafeteria, she noticed the light drizzle. Now she was cold, hungry and wet. Delightful. Why couldn't she have been in a sunny country like Australia when the zombie apocalypse hit? Not somewhere where the general weather forecast was 70% chance of showers alongside 100% chance of zombie sightings.

Not for the first time she noted that being a Runner was like being a rockstar. People moved out of her way in the quad. They looked at her in awe and respect. Small children would run up to her and tell her that when they grew up they wanted to be a runner just like her. Even though she was designated in the last meal rotation for lunch and there was always the ever present fear in people's minds that food may run out, she was waved through to the front of the queue.

There was also a downside to being one of the most recognised people in the camp. Certain people had started a betting ring on how long Runners would last. She knew that a lot of the eyes on her were watching her for weaknesses. 'Was it just me or did it look like she was limping?' 'Did you see how little she ate last night? She'll need more food in her if she wants to outrun those zoms'. Her odds had come down significantly over the last few weeks. She didn't really look like a runner but she was still here, wasn't she? What the people in Abel didn't realise was that the fear of being turned into a zombie gave her feet wings. She was nothing much during the compulsory training runs that Runner Seven organised around the Township but out there in the field, she was fast. She was good.

"Runner Five. Runner Five"

The voice was so familiar and close that for a split second she thought she was still wearing her headset.

"Psst… over here"

She turned and saw Sam, lurking around a corner and motioning her over. Her heart sank at the sight of him. She hadn't eaten since last night, missing breakfast because she'd slept in and she was starving. However, she owed Sam her life. She owed it to him on several occasions in fact. If ever there was someone worth missing meals for, it was Sam Yao.

She walked round the corner to join him.

"Hello" he said, a big grin on his face. "It's a bit odd to talk to you like this, isn't it?"

She couldn't help but smile back. It was always so strange to see him in the flesh. To her, he was a disembodied voice, guiding her through the dark. Sam kept himself to himself at camp, taking most of his meals in the Comms Shack. For all she knew, he probably slept there too.

"I feel really bad asking you this, Five, but I need a favour"


	2. Chapter 2

Runner Five followed Sam over to the Comms Shack, past the Hospital. There were a few people watching their progress but most of their eyes were on her, not on Sam. Hardly anyone knew who Sam was or the important work he did. He seemed jittery, although that wasn't unusual. Over the airwaves Sam was a god but in the real world, he was just one of the rest of them, not knowing what they'd done to spare themselves the fate of being a zombie. It was enough to unnerve anyone. Not knowing if today would be your last day or not. Knowing there wasn't a lot you could do either way. She sometimes thought it was safer being Five and not a name. Safer to be a symbol than a real person made of flesh and blood. But she took comfort in the fact that Sam was 'Sam' and not 'Comms Operator Three'.

She hadn't asked Sam what he'd wanted from her. Whatever it was, she'd do it. She trusted him.

He opened the door to the Shack and was about to walk in, when he realised that he should have held the door open for her and let her walk in first- being a lady and all. He backtracked and ended up bumping into her, narrowly missing her toes in the process.

"Will you two just get in here?" Janine said in an exasperated tone.

Janine could be a bit prickly but she meant well. At least that's what Five hoped. Besides, Five felt a bit sorry for her. Her entire farm had been taken over and turned into a stronghold against the zombie mass. Probably not the ideal plans Janine had had for her farm.

"I asked Sam to find you because he says I can trust you" She paused. "I need you to go on a mission. An unsanctioned mission"

"Like James Bond" Sam added helpfully.

Janine ignored him and kept going. "Brunswick Township is slowly rebuilding after the fire. I have a… friend there" Sam and Five exchanged looks because they both remembered the relief in Janine's voice on that day "and he wants to repay us for our help. There's a couple of things I need that he can provide"

Again Sam and Five looked at each other and grinned. Janine tutted. "Knock it off"

Sam peered out the one window. "It looks like there's fog coming off the hills. We should probably wait it out and see if tomorrow's any better"

"If we don't go now, I don't know when we'll be able to go again. I've paid off a guard who can open the gate without alerting anyone else. This is our best chance"

Runner Five had a bad feeling about this. The last time she'd gone out on a "special mission" for Janine, it hadn't exactly ended well. She'd nearly been captured by New Canton and had had to escape whilst being shot at. She'd had to run back to Abel in the dark with only the sound of Sam's voice to keep her going.

Sam sensed her hesitation and dove in. "Janine, I don't think this is a good idea"

"You can't be precious about your Runners, Sam. Dangerous missions are a part of their job."

"I'm not being precious. She's a human being, not just a tool for your disposal"

"Look we all know how you have a thing about Runner Fives but this is important"

Ouch. Low blow. Even for Janine. She looked like she instantly wanted to take the words back but it was too late. Sam fiddled with some buttons on the desk, his head down, unreadable. After what seemed an age, he replied. "Fine. But it has to be up to Five"

Five didn't want to go. Today was supposed to be the start of her leave. The Runners had a roster where each Runner worked ten days straight and then got four days R&R. She was exhausted. She had a niggling pain in her left shin. On the other hand, it couldn't be a bad thing to get in with Janine. If she did this for her, Janine would have to owe her. And she felt like Janine knew a lot more than she was saying.

She took a deep breath. "The only problem I can think of is that Seven will be looking for me. We're supposed to have a training session after lunch" Five said. "And he's pretty friendly with the higher ups"

"We'll say you're sick" Sam offered.

That was not a good idea. Sickness was not looked on kindly. Even a simple headache was treated with suspicion.

Janine shook her head. "No good. If she's sick enough to miss training, Seven will look for her in the Hospital to make sure she's ok". She looked from Sam to Five and then back again. "I'll say she's with you and not to be disturbed. That should make sure neither of you are looked for"

Five shrugged. It didn't matter to her and she guessed there were worse people to be linked to in Abel Township. The other Runners would tease her mercilessly but she could live with it.

"Why would nobody look..?" he trailed off as it dawned on him, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"It'd make sense" Janine said.

"Because of my 'thing' for Runner Fives. I'll have you know that the first Fives were guys and I did not have a 'thing' for them… because they both had things". He laughed at his own joke.

Five rolled her eyes. "Let's get this over with"

"It's here somewhere". Sam scrabbled around the desk and pulled out a headset from underneath a stack of papers.

"I've told you a hundred times to treat those with care. If they break, that's it. I don't have any more" Janine sighed.

"Safest place for it, here on the desk" Sam passed the headset over to Five. She slipped it on.

"You'll probably need this too" Sam handed her some waterproof protective gear for the headset. "Sorry" he apologised as if he was personally responsible for the bad weather.

She was already dressed for running. Runners had to be ready at a moment's notice to go out on a mission, even in their downtime.

"Let's go" Janine said brusquely to Five. "We've only got a small window of time. I'll take you to the guard and he can take you from there"

They left the Comms Shack and quickly made their way over to the main gate, using the buildings as cover.

"Runner Five, Runner Five. Can you hear me?"

Sam's voice was loud in her ear. A little too loud but she'd be glad of that once she was out in the field, just her and Sam's voice. And a bunch of zombies.

She replied that she could hear him loud and clear.

"Stay safe out there. I don't want to have to say "I told you so" to Janine"


	3. Chapter 3

Janine stalked around the corner as if she owned the place. Which she did. Runner Five followed at a slower pace. There was just one guard on the gate, usually there were two. The guard looked over at Five.

"This the Runner?"

Janine nodded.

"It's pretty grey out there. Zombie-wise and fog-wise. Might want to leave it til tomorrow" he said.

"We don't have until tomorrow. We need to go now" For the first time, she really looked at Five. "I can't risk signing anything out from the armoury." She reached behind her and pulled out a small gun from her waistband. "With the fog, we probably won't be able to give you good directions away from any swarms. There are five bullets in there. Count them as you're firing. If you have to use the gun, you'll probably need to save a bullet for yourself"

Janine was so practical. Five wondered if she'd always been like that or if she'd changed her personality out of necessity.

"You need to go now. You've been to Brunswick before, head out there and fast. Before nightfall. I'll give you the rest of the instructions via the mic. Good luck, Runner Five"

She turned and headed back the way they'd just come. Five stretched slightly. Time to head out. The guard manually lifted the gate a little way off the ground. "Perimeter power's off. It's coming back on in three minutes"

It meant she had to crawl under the gate. Not even out of the Township and she was already covered in mud.

"I'll get up on the Tower and cover you for as far as I can" the guard said through the gate. "Hurry"

She didn't need to be told twice and began jogging away from Abel. The rain had descended into a fine mist. Visibility wasn't good.

"Five, just keep heading North. I'll tell you when you need to change directions. I've got visual on you. For now" Sam didn't sound optimistic.

When she got back to base, she would have to give Sam a talking to. He needed to stop being so honest over the mic. Sometimes a girl needs to be lied to.

After a few minutes of easy jogging, her stomach growled. She should have scrounged some food before she left.

"What's that? The scanner's not picking up any activity near you and I can't see anything" Sam's panicked voice came through.

"Relax, it's just my stomach". She wanted to laugh but laughing was distracting and she needed to keep focussed.

"Ok Five, from the scanner it seems like you'll hit the main road soon. The road will take you to Brunswick and it'll be easy for you to follow. I'll have good camera coverage of you but we all know that zombies tend to congregate in areas that used to be popular- much like that main road you're about to encounter" He paused. "Or you could try your luck and run through the countryside to get to Brunswick. It's a shorter route. You've been pretty lucky so far, Runner Five"

There was no such thing as luck, and even if there was, everyone knew that luck only lasted so long.

"It seems like some of the cameras are down over that area. They never seem to work as well in this weather"

His voice sounded a bit distant, as though he was speaking away from the mic. "Maybe she could just turn around and come home?"

"No" it was Janine. She was obviously hogging the mic. "Five, you are to keep running. Whichever path you take will be dangerous but we need you to get to Brunswick. Just keep running."

**Because as Runner Five, we've got such little choice, I thought I'd pass control back to the Runners! Do you want to take the longer route on the main road where Sam will be able to give you heads up on any zombies… but there will likely be a ton of zombies? Or do you want to try going through the countryside where you might not even see any zombies but Sam will only have partial visibility on you?**


	4. Chapter 4

"Alrighty then. I can see you've made your choice. You've been that way before to New Brunswick. It'll look a little different this time with all the mist but I'll be able to direct you with the scanners" Sam said.

"Smart move to stay away from the main road. This way's a shorter distance too" Janine interrupted.

"Yes and as I was saying" Sam sounded huffy, annoyed at Janine's interruption. "The cameras will hopefully be up and running so we can keep an eye on you" There was a pause. "So maybe you should get on that?" He said in a pointed manner obviously, talking to Janine.

"Mr. Yao, it is not my fault that the cameras are malfunctioning due to this unfortunate weather. We need to do further camera testing and provide better wet weather protection for them which we will do in good time" Janine snapped back.

Five tuned out. Once Sam and Janine got into an argument, they could keep going round in circles. Strangely, it did make for somewhat comforting white noise. She spotted something small lying on the ground and made her way over to it. It was a book. The front cover had a lady looking longingly into the face of a man who for some reason was not wearing a shirt. Not really Five's preferred genre but maybe somebody back at the base would like it and besides, it weighed nothing. And who didn't need a bit of romantic escapism nowadays. She popped it in her backpack.

"You still there?" It was Sam. "Sorry about that. Janine and I are both a bit on edge. If the Major finds out we're using Runners for personal missions, even if it's to help Abel, we'll be in trouble. Major trouble" He laughed. "Anyway, Janine's gone to fiddle with the camera feeds, see if she can, um… boost the signal… or something… I didn't really understand. So now it's back to just you and me"

He paused. "You're doing great. Keep up the pace and you'll be there in no time. Actually, head East a bit more, you're almost going off track"

She changed direction, looking at the compass she wore around her neck that Seven had given to her as a 'Welcome to the Runners' present. She guessed that the path that she was following was the wrong one.

"No. Nope. Your 'other' East" She could hear the smile in Sam's voice.

She was no good at directions, even with the compass. She looked at it again, squinted and changed paths.

"Bingo" Sam said. "And as a reward, you will soon be passing a real live working camera. I'll wave at you on the monitors. You won't be able to see me, but you'll feel the love"

She spotted a bottle of tablets, maybe pain meds. Maxine would know. She threw them in her backpack. She often wondered about who was dropping all this stuff all over the place. Fleeing refugees? People marking their way like Hansel and Gretel?

"There you are. I see you. Hello". There was a pause. Five could hear a creak as Sam moved in his chair. "And not to alarm you or anything, but Janine's managed to turn on another camera and there are some zoms dead ahead. Sorry. "un-dead ahead"?" He laughed and then tried to pull himself together as he realised this was probably not the time or place.

"With the mist, they probably haven't noticed you. Or smelled you. Or whatever it is they do. Try making a wide berth around them"

Thanks for the advice Sam. Nah, I just thought I'd wander straight up to them, Five thought to herself and changed direction yet again. She slowed down her pace a little to conserve energy just in case the zoms noticed her and gave chase.

"Nearly past them" Sam murmured in her ear. He didn't need to but he'd lowered his voice. He was probably about as tense as she was. It must be a different kind of hell having to watch everything unfold and not be able to do anything about it.

"Too late. One's seen you and is coming your way. Now the other two are following. Not going much faster than a shamble but run. Just run"

She ran blindly. The mist meant she couldn't see much in front of her. She could be running into something much worse than what was chasing her but she didn't have time to think about. She was running across an open field now and could see a fence in the near distance. She didn't dare turn around to see if they were gaining on her but she could hear their ragged breathing above her own. Not good.

"Head for the fence, it'll slow them down" This was Janine, she was back.

Five wanted to swear at the top of her lungs at Janine but she couldn't afford to waste any breath. What did Janine think she was running towards?

"Five, you'll have to take them out. They'll just be waiting for you on the way back if you don't" Janine said with a tone of finality.

**Author's note: Do you want to take the zombies out or just keep running? Reply in the 'review' section.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks America for replying to the author's note at the end of the last chapter. It made my day :)**

There was no way Runner Five was going to wait around for those zoms to get close enough to take them out. She carefully made her way over the fence. There would have been a time when she would have just vaulted over it but you had to be careful nowadays. One wrong move out in the field and even a small injury could spell disaster.

Five could hear Janine muttering in the background over the headset. She probably should have followed Janine's orders but it's all well and good Janine telling her to kill three zombies while she's safely back behind the thick walls of Abel Township. Five didn't like killing zoms unless it was a life or death situation. She slowed down to turn around and have a look behind her. The three zombies were stopped at the fence, trying to move forward but the wooden barriers held them back. They'd eventually get through but she'd be long gone by then. Hopefully.

"Ok. Keep going" Sam said. "Not too far from Brunswick now" There was a pause. "I thought you were going to say something? About the mission?" Five could tell from his voice that he wasn't close to the mic, that he must have been turning to talk to Janine. "Right, well, Janine's in a huff but she's coming over to talk to you"

"I am not in a huff" Janine responded.

It sounded like she was in a huff.

Five smiled and kept running. She saw a bottle of water lying next to a tin of food and picked them up, mid-stride.

"I've been in contact with Ben over at Brunswick. He believes that he's managed to make rofflenet work faster within their Township network and he's going to give us the notes and resources that we'll need to make that happen here. If we can get rofflenet working better within Abel, then that will make it easier to make contact with the other surviving communities. Communication between the various camps is important. We have to pull our resources together if we're going to survive. We can't just live day to day anymore, we've got to start looking at the bigger picture"

"So… Ben, is it?" Sam asked, a sly note creeping into his voice.

Janine sighed. "I make a speech about trying to rebuild civilisation and mankind working together and that is what you take from it"

"…Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Five, you got anything to add?"

"I think my mic is out of range" she said clearly into the headset. Five was staying out of it.

"Smart girl" From the sound of her voice, it actually sounded like Janine was possibly amused. "You're getting close to Brunswick. It's just over the hill. Can you see the hill yet?"

"Oi, that's my job" Sam interjected. "… Can you see the hill?"

"I see it"

"We've got a live camera feed from Brunswick's camp. Ben headed out about ten minutes ago with an armed guard and is waiting at the crest of the hill" Janine said.

Five hated hills a lot. You were supposed to head for higher ground if you were being chased by zoms in order to slow them down and gain the advantage of higher ground for yourself. It was like whoever made up that rule had forgotten that it would also wear the Runner out too. Hills were just not good. Not good at all. She decided to commit a big Runner sin and decided to start walking up the hill.

"Hey, whatcha doing? We don't call you Runners for nothing, you know" Sam piped up over the comms.

"I'd like to see you run up a giant never-ending hill. I'm conserving my energy "Five retorted.

Even though she was walking, she was still going at a quick pace. As she came up to the top of the hill, she could see two figures standing close together beside a tree. Even though she knew it was Ben and the armed guard, it didn't stop the spike in adrenalin and her heart began hammering of its own accord. It was such an unusual sight to see people, real live humans, out in open territory. One of them- she assumed it was Ben- raised his arm in greeting. The other person kept his hands at waist level, probably all the better to reach for his gun. She remembered again what had happened the last time Janine had sent her on a mission like this. She remembered how she'd had to literally dodge bullets. She'd been glad that her mic had been cut off because it meant Sam hadn't heard her cry as she'd run through the night. She still had trouble sleeping.

"It'll be ok, Five" Sam said softly in her ear.

She picked up the pace and headed over to them.

**Author's note: Just in case you couldn't tell, I am absolutely technologically illiterate. I have no idea what Janine is talking about when she talks about computer-y stuff and I hope it makes some kind of vague sense!**


	6. Chapter 6

"Ok, you've just come onscreen on the live feed from Brunswick. We can see you nice and clear on the monitor" Sam said. "And I think the fog's starting to lift"

Five remembered Ben from the night that she'd stayed at Brunswick after helping to evacuate the camp. He'd been really kind to her and Eight, making sure that they were well fed and rested before returning to Abel in the morning. It was hard to imagine him being friends with Janine, who could sometimes come across as a little bristly.

"You got here sooner than I expected. You made very good time" Ben held out a duffel bag to her, which she took. "But I imagine you'll want to be heading back straight away. Not long to go before the dark starts setting in"

"Open the bag, Five, and take a look inside" Janine said in her ear.

Five wavered. She didn't want to appear rude in front of Ben, blatantly showing that she didn't trust him by opening the bag in front of him to check that he'd put inside what he'd promised.

Ben laughed at her indecision. "I bet that Miss De Luca's on the other end of that headset, telling you to open up the bag" He moved closer to Five in order to get closer to her mic. "It's alright Janine, you know you can trust me. Surely you know that after everything we've been through together" He unzipped the bag and started pulling out items for Janine to see on the camera.

"Five, she's blushing. I repeat, Janine is blushing" Sam sounded ridiculously excited.

Five tried to hide her smile.

"What's she saying? Something rude about me, right?" Ben laughed.

"Hand the headset over to Mr Jones, Five" Janine was loud and clear in her ear.

Five made a face at the order, rolling her eyes.

"Five, I can see you on the cameras. Take off the headset and pass it over to Mr Jones"

Five hurried to take off her headset but not before hearing Sam laugh at her misfortune.

"Janine wants you to put this on" she said to Ben.

She felt naked without her headset on. She hadn't realised how much she relied on it. It was her zombie apocalypse security blanket. She fidgeted and looked at the guy with the gun. He was busy scanning the horizon for zoms, which is probably what she should be doing too. She looked beyond him. Sam had been right, the fog was starting to lift. And while it wasn't exactly sunny, it wasn't exactly miserable either.

Ben was obviously fielding a hundred and one questions from Janine. "Yes, it'll work if you re-route the… no, because first you have to… but only if you've already done… exactly…"

She looked at the Brunswick settlement, it was coming along nicely even after that fire. She took off her own backpack that she was wearing. She'd only collected a few things and she should be able to fit Ben's items into her own.

"Alright, there you go" Ben handed her the headset back. "She was chewing off my ear but I think she's happy"

Five tried not to grab for the headset.

"Aaaand I'm back. Miss me?" Sam asked once her headset was back in place.

"You bet"

"We've got some more cameras up now the weather's clearing so we should be able to cover your journey the whole way home" Janine added.

Ben was talking to Five but she missed what he'd said, as she'd been listening to Abel over the headset. She asked him to repeat what was said.

"I said, have a safe run back. Do you need anything? Some water? More ammo?"

She shook her head. She just wanted to get back. Get back home. Ben helped her put the backpack on her shoulders. It wasn't too heavy, it seemed like Ben had mainly given them wiring and cables. The weight was distributed evenly on her shoulders.

"There you go" he said. "I don't think you'll keel over with that on your back. But if you're getting chased, drop it and sprint for home. Or here, we'll take you in. You can always pick it up later. I don't think zombies have much use for cables"

She thanked him and headed on her way. Going down the hill was a different kind of evil. With all the rain, the path was slippery and she had to mind where she put her feet.

"Time to come on home, Five." Sam said. "All you have to do is bring that package home in one piece" He paused for thought. "That came out way more ominous than intended"


	7. Chapter 7

Despite Sam's 'foreshadowing', the run home was surprisingly zombie free. It gave Runner Five a good feeling to be out and about and not have to come face to face with a shambling mess. There were a couple of near misses but because Sam had her run mapped out perfectly via the cameras, he could tell her which areas to avoid.

"Janine's gone to have a word with the people on guard at the gate. It's a lot easier to sneak someone out than it is to sneak someone in. Don't want them mistakenly shooting you" Sam told her.

"You really have a way with the ladies, don't you? Telling me that the guards could easily mistake me for the walking dead"

"I meant… I didn't meant that… you know what I meant!" he spluttered.

Five laughed. She could see the gates of Abel from here and they were raising. This meant that there mustn't be anything else in sight, otherwise they wouldn't have raised them. It really _had_ been a good run.

She passed Janine at the gates on her way in, who waved her through. "Go onto the Comms station, I'll meet you there".

As she approached the Comms Shack, she could see Sam peering out of the window for his first glimpse of the returning Runner. It was an endearing quirk of his. Even though he'd just spent the entire Mission talking and monitoring a Runner and had given the orders to raise the gates due to the Runner's safe return, he always checked for them visually as if something might have happened between the Runner coming through the gates and them turning off their headset.

She walked in through the door and slung the backpack off her shoulder.

"Hi Five!" Sam greeted her, holding out his hand for a high five.

"Sam, that's truly, truly terrible" She raised her hand nonetheless. His enthusiasm was catching.

They slapped hands. She took off her headset and handed it to him.

"I can't believe we haven't done that joke before. I thought it up while you were on the way back"

"Good use of your time when you should be watching the monitors" she responded.

Janine walked in and her eyes fastened onto the backpack. She began pulling items out of it and putting them away in what seemed to be pre-arranged spaces. She seemed to be in her own little world which is why it was a surprise when she turned to Five and said "I don't know why you're still standing there. You should be on your way to see the doctor"

"Aw, come on Janine" Sam argued.

"I know it was an unofficial mission but we should still follow protocol. If the Major ever finds out about this mission, and I'm sure she will, I'd like her to know that we followed protocol.There was quite a long period when Runner Five wasn't on camera. Anything could have happened"

Sam looked like he was going to say something else but Five cut him off. "It's ok. Two minutes of awkwardness is worth everyone's peace of mind. And it's really not that bad."

It didn't take long to get to the hospital, nor did it take long to find Maxine. Maxine was frowning at a clipboard and a pile of supplies on a table. She looked up at the person approaching her and changed her facial expression to one of warmth.

"Janine told me earlier that I should be expecting you. Let's go in here" Maxine said, leading the way into an area that had been curtained off. "Ok, you know the drill"

She turned to offer Five some privacy, which was nice but seriously, who were they trying to kid? Once Five was wearing just her underwear, Maxine turned back and began a scrupulous examination of Five's bare skin. The first time she'd had to undergo this examination, she had been horribly embarrassed and was pretty sure her entire body had been blushing. Nowadays, it was just part of the post-run ritual: hand your headset back to Sam, go to Maxine for a check, do some stretches and then have a shower. It helped that it wasn't Maxine her friend doing the examination, it was Maxine the doctor, efficient and professional.

"Unbroken skin all round. Where's the report book?" Maxine asked, looking for the report book that she was supposed to sign after her check of a runner.

"There isn't one" Five answered.

Maxine raised her eyebrows. "Top secret stuff indeed. Janine wasn't lying about the whole 'need to know' bit. So I guess the rumours that have been flying around Abel all afternoon about you and Sam are false then? Too bad. I was going to offer to swap meal rotations with you so you could take your meals together"

"Everyone's been talking about it?" Five grimaced, as she started to put her clothes back on

"All afternoon"

She didn't particularly have anywhere to be so she automatically headed back to the housing area. She was halfway through a book and that would pass the time until it was her turn for dinner. She passed the Comms Shack, where she saw Sam standing outside, leaning against the wall, his hands stuffed in his pockets and a scowl on his face.

"I'm protesting Janine acting like she's in charge of everything" he said as a way of explanation when he met her questioning look.

"So you walked out of the Comms Shack and basically left Janine in charge of everything..?" she replied.

"It's not the greatest plan I've ever had, I'll give you that, but I had to make a point"

As if on cue, Janine opened the door and looked at Sam. "You didn't get very far, did you? Come on Mr Yao, I'll need someone to help me and since you're the least clueless person here, you'll have to do"

"'Least clueless person here'? That's actually quite high praise coming from you" Sam answered, sounding chuffed and already on his way back inside.

Almost as an afterthought, Sam turned as the door was closing. "See you around, Five. And thanks for your help today"

She raised her hand to wave goodbye but he was gone, back into his world of computer monitors and mics.


End file.
